


Wish

by Lesca Fenix (lescafenix)



Category: Darker Than Black
Genre: F/M, Implied Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 20:14:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lescafenix/pseuds/Lesca%20Fenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As he goes on the run from the Syndicate with Yin, Hei thinks about what falling stars once meant to him and what they mean now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wish

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sprl1199](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprl1199/gifts).



> Takes place between the end of season 1 and the first OVA. I could not have done this without my amazing beta and creative conscience, [fell_lindzei](http://archiveofourown.org/users/fell_lindzei/pseuds/fell_lindzei).

The distant lights of Kagoshima City cast a faint glow into the night sky, competing with the stars and even overwhelming them near the horizon. Hei reclined on his elbows on the ground and looked up, past the encroaching light, to the brightest and boldest of the stars. Far from Tokyo, he found himself wondering whether these stars were real or just as false as the ones imposed over the city when Hell’s Gate appeared.

The stars blurred for a moment, and Hei shook his head to clear it. “Can’t sleep now,” he muttered, glancing over at Yin, who was fast asleep beneath his coat on the ground nearby. Three days of constant travel with barely any sleep had driven her to the point of collapse, although she’d never complained. Hei was loath to squander the cover of darkness, but he reminded himself there was little they could do upon reaching Kagoshima until the ferry office opened.

He occupied his mind to stay awake. He went over the names and story he was going to use when he purchased the ferry tickets. He and Yin were Mr. and Mrs. Chen, newlyweds headed to Okinawa for their honeymoon. It was safe, if clichéd, and it would hopefully buy them some time for Hei to plan their next move. He sighed and flopped onto his back, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. Just a few hours until sunrise. He’d stayed awake longer. He opened them and fixed his eyes on the stars, watching for any flicker of movement, an indication that yet another contractor had fallen. It was habit, any more, although it served no purpose other than a morbid curiosity, almost like reading the obituaries in the newspaper with the names blacked out.

A bright streak across his field of vision startled Hei to his feet with his knife drawn, and he realized that he’d fallen asleep despite himself. He cursed, heart pounding in his ears, and scrubbed his hand over his face. He couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but it was still dark, so it couldn’t have been too long. Yin had not moved, and all was still silent. He turned his eyes back up to the stars.

“Did you make a wish?” a voice near his ear asked. Hei whipped his head around, but saw nobody.

“Who’s there?” he demanded. The familiar voice made his stomach lurch.

“You always told me to wish on falling stars, brother. Did you wish too?”

“Bai?” he hissed, pacing around the camp. Her voice was unmistakable, but he knew it had to be a hallucination from lack of sleep. She was gone. This was the last thing he needed. “Who’s there?” He squinted into the darkness, but saw no sign of movement. “Great,” he muttered. As he tried to focus on his breathing, he found himself thinking about the nights he and Bai would watch the stars together, and how different the stars had seemed once she’d become a contractor.

He remembered a time after Bai had fulfilled one of her first contracts and they had found a safe spot on a mountainside for her to pay her obeisance. As she’d settled into his arms to sleep, she’d gasped drowsily. “A falling star!”

“You know that isn’t real,” Hei had chided her, stroking her hair.

“I always wish anyway,” Bai had said with a smile. “Just in case.”

Hei glanced up to the sky again. Could God still have his door open, somewhere above that false sky? If He did, would He even have ears for any wish Hei might send his way, after he had cursed Him so thoroughly for his sister’s fate? What kind of god sacrificed innocent girls to be cold-blooded killers, slaves to a calling they’d never asked for, imposed upon them against their will?

“It isn’t real.” Hei said, an echo of his words years ago. It didn’t matter whether sky was real, or even if God was real. It was obvious nobody was listening. Every connection he’d made on his journey to find out the truth about what had happened to Bai proved it. All he had to do was look at those he’d encountered after becoming BK-201. Havoc had wished to lose her contractor powers. July had wished that his friends would stay safe. Chiaki had wished for someone to take her away from her miserable life. Mai had wished for someone to love her and end her loneliness. Amber had wished for a future where contractors lived equally among regular humans. Havoc was now dead, as were November 11 and Chiaki. Mai was dead as well, after suffering so much emotional pain and loss of innocence. And Amber would never see the future she'd dreamed of, thanks to Hei. Not a very promising track record.

“All the wishing in the world can’t change what is,” he said aloud. He wasn’t going to cower before whoever was playing devil’s advocate with him, trying to infiltrate his mind. Was it someone from the Syndicate, some contractor with the power to communicate telepathically?

“Maybe not, but it can make accepting it that much easier.” Bai’s voice said again, still that quiet whisper in his ear, even as he grew louder. “Or, maybe wishing can change what will be.”

“Just stop it, damn it! Stop it!” Hei buried his knife to the hilt in the ground beside him, as though he could assassinate this mind-fuck like one of his contracts. His voice echoed among the rustling trees, and he froze, waiting for the inevitable ambush, as he had revealed his position. Several minutes of aching silence passed, until Hei’s exhausted muscles began to quiver from holding his position. He sank to the ground, still gripping the handle of his knife. Eventually, he let that fall too. He saw nobody, except when he closed his eyes. Then he could picture Bai, just as she’d looked when he’d last seen her. She reached up to touch his face, just as she had then, but her words were a bit different.

“I watched the stars fall that night in Heaven’s Gate, brother. And I wished on every one of them. I wished never to be apart from you.”

Hei bowed his head and chuckled grimly. Was that God’s version of a joke? Or had he given Bai the ultimate answer to her wish?

“Make a wish. For yourself,” Bai's voice pressed.

“Fine. Fine,” Hei sighed, not sure who exactly he was humoring. "I'll think about it." There was nothing he wanted. At least nothing positive or hopeful, worthy of a wish.

He jumped when he felt a pair of arms slip around his chest from behind. His eyes flew open and in one movement he found himself holding his knife to Yin's throat. He immediately dropped it. “Yin!” he hissed. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”

“Who were you talking to?” Yin asked, not moving.

“No one,” Hei said flatly. “Don’t ever do that again, you hear me?”

“Understood,” Yin said.

Hei looked at her for a long moment, then exhaled roughly. “Are you done sleeping? We have to get moving.”

Yin nodded, although she made no move to get up, nor take her arms from where they’d ended up around Hei’s neck and shoulders.

Hei looked to the east, where the sky had begun to gray. At that moment, another star streaked low along the horizon. He closed his eyes and pulled Yin close against his side. They’d head to the ferry in a minute. Perhaps there was something to wish for after all.


End file.
